A succession plan “is in place” and will be announced in the coming weeks, Lloydspharmacy said as it announced Professor Howard’s retirement yesterday (August 20)

Professor Howard started his career as a hospital pharmacist after graduating from the University of Manchester, before joining Lloydspharmacy as a pharmacy manager in 1985.

He will remain within the business in a part-time role as non-executive adviser to Lloydspharmacy’s parent company McKesson UK, overseeing collective clinical standards and governance procedures and processes.

Toby Anderson, chief executive of McKesson UK, said Professor Howard had “made a great contribution throughout his career with our business”, and thanked him for his “dedication, service, leadership and professional guidance over the years and in particular during the recent considerable period of change”.

Professor Howard is also a Royal Pharmaceutical Society fellow, as well as a visiting professor at the University of Huddersfield and the University of East Anglia.